LEIF ERIKSSON DISCOVERER OF AMERICA? -BY AWAKE! WRITER IN DENMARK

This sub -topic goes with the blog before this one. I just wanted to let the readers know how the Norse sailors used latitude and longitude. 


What Evidence? 

No one really knows how to reconcile the details of this Norse saga with today's geography.  The sketch and cryptic details of the sagas have long intrigued historians. However, the most substantial evidence of a Norse presence in America before Columbus is the site excavated during the 1960's and 1970's in Newfoundland, near the village of L'Anse aux Meadows. This site contains the ruins of houses that are indisputably Norse, as well as an iron furnace and other objects that have been dated to the time of Leif Eriksson. Also a Danish explorer working in southern Newfoundland recently found a carefully crafted stone weight that was probably used in a Viking ship. 

The Norse voyages to new lands in the far west were not kept secret. Leif Eriksson traveled to Norway to report what he had seen to the Norwegian king.  When Adam of Bremen, a German historian and head of a cathedral school, traveled to Denmark about 1070 to learn of lands to the north, Denmark's King Sweyn told him about Vinland, with the excellent wine.  This bit of lore became part of Adam Bremen's chronicle. Hence, many of the learned in Europe came to know of the western lands that Norsemen had visited. Additionally, ancient Icelandic annals of the 12th and 14th centuries mentioned some later Norse voyages to Markland and Vinland west of Greenland. 

Christopher Columbus too many well have known about the Vinland journeys that took place some 500 years before his time. According to one book about Vinland, there are indications that before his famous voyage of 1492/93, Columbus even traveled to Iceland in order to study the records there. 

Next time: LEIF ERIKSSON DISCOVERER OF AMERICA? -BY AWAKE! WRITER IN DENMARK/What Became of the Norsemen?

From the Awake! magazine